Shawn Storm’s New Ground For Appeal Accepted By Judge

Shawn Storm received great news last week following the final case management hearing ahead of his highly anticipated appeal trial set for July 9th.

Defence attorney Bert Samuels, who is representing the Dancehall entertainer submitted a new ground for appeal on Thursday and the Court of Appeal president, Justice Morrison, accepted the filing.

The entertainers were granted leave to appeal their murder conviction after citing several reasons, including claims that they did not receive a fair trial and that justice was miscarried in their cases, as well as that the trial judge, Justice Lennox Campbell, had erred in admitting contaminated cellphone evidence and that there was more than reasonable doubt about the phone’s integrity.

Samuels also claimed that an injustice was done to his client because his previous lawyer was unable to argue certain grounds and confront one of the witness because the prosecution said it lost the original statement.

“Mr (Michael) Lorne, Campbell’s lawyer, tried to use the photocopy, was waiting on the prosecution to find the original. They have not yet found it; they said it was lost by the previous council who unfortunately died and they can’t find the original statement,” he said.

Samuels added that prosecution should have allowed counsel to use the photocopy. “In any trial the prosecution must have ready the original statements… witnesses can only be confronted with the original statement. If they are to be confronted with a photocopy they are to get the leave of the court.”

Back in 2014, the prosecution offered Shawn Storm a deal to testify against Vybz Kartel and in return they would drop the murder charge against him. The Gaza deejay declined the deal.